Canada and Australia are two countries that share a lot of similarities: they are both resource-rich, sparsely populated developed countries. The majority ethnic groups in both countries are English-speaking, Protestant, and white Anglo-Caucasians. Both countries are members of the "Five Eyes" alliance of Anglo-Saxon countries. It is said that both English-speaking Anglo-Saxon countries maintain special relations with the United States and Britain. However, Canada, as a member of NATO and the G7, seems to have closer relations with the United States and the United Kingdom than Australia. In fact, core organizations such as NATO and the G7, which are composed of Western powers, hardly play with Australia.
This difference is first and foremost determined by strength. First of all, in terms of national size, Canada's land area of 9.98 million square kilometers ranks second in the world, and Australia's land area of 7.69 million square kilometers ranks sixth in the world. Australia is the only country in the world that has an entire continent to itself. Australia alone accounts for 85.7 per cent of the total area of Oceania. It is precisely because of Australia's geographical environment that it occupies a single continent and makes it a territorial sea in the southeast, northwest and northwest, so Australia, which has a land area of 7.69 million square kilometers, still has a sea area of 8.5 million square kilometers.
Australia has the world's third-largest sea area and the world's third-largest land and sea area. Canada's northern islands are numerous and have a rugged coastline. Canada's 200,000 kilometres of coastline is the second longest in the world. This gives Canada a sea area of 5.7 million square kilometres. Canada has the seventh largest sea area in the world. The land area of 9.98 million square kilometers plus the sea area of 5.7 million square kilometers adds up to 15.68 million square kilometers. Canada's total land and sea area ranks fourth in the world after Russia, the United States and Australia.
In terms of territorial area, both Canada and Australia are large countries, but both countries are typical countries with vast land and sparsely populated populations. As of 2023, Canada has a population of about 40 million and Australia has a population of more than 26 million. Canada's population still has a significant advantage over Australia. As a result, Canada is slightly ahead of Australia in terms of size. A relatively larger population would provide Canada with a more abundant source of troops, labor resources, and a domestic market than Australia. In 2023, Canada will rank 10th in the world in terms of economic aggregate and Australia will rank 12th in the world.
In the same year, Australia's per capita GDP was $5,770 and Canada's was $5,750. Australia is slightly more than Canada by $20. The modest difference of $20 is not enough to make Australians much different from Canadians in terms of living standards, but Canada's advantage over Australia in terms of economic aggregate is real. Canada currently has the world's 8th largest energy reserves, 10th largest food production and 6th largest electricity generation in the world. These are all data that Australia cannot match.
Although much of northern Canada is difficult to develop agriculture due to its cold climate, the country with the second largest land area still has the seventh largest arable land area in the world. The Australian outback is an uninhabitable desert for farming. Australia's population is concentrated in the southeastern and southwestern coastal regions. The light and heat conditions here are extremely suitable for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry. Australia has the eighth largest arable land area in the world. Australia is also the country with the largest area of natural grassland in the world. Both Canada and Australia have achieved a high degree of mechanized automation in agriculture.
Canada is currently the world's fifth-largest exporter of agricultural products. Canada's main agricultural exports include wheat, beef, fishery products, etc. In addition, the presence of Newfoundland fisheries has enabled Canada to become the world's largest exporter of fishery products. Australia is also the world's leading exporter of agricultural products. Australia's main agricultural exports are wheat, beef and mutton, wool, etc. Australia is the world's largest exporter of wool. In addition to its developed agriculture, Canada is also a country with a complete industrial sector. In the 50s of the 20th century, the Canadian Ivor Aircraft Manufacturing Company developed the then advanced interceptor CF-105.
This aircraft was developed specifically to intercept and hunt Soviet nuclear bombers. The CF-105 can reach a maximum speed of 1,100 kilometers per hour and can fly up to 16,000 meters. This move broke many records in the field of world aviation at that time. Canada has a well-known brand in the civil aviation industry, Bombardier. Canada's Bombardier Inc. is the world's third-largest civil aircraft manufacturer, with operations in more than 60 countries. Bombardier is one of the world's leading suppliers of regional passenger aircraft. In the field of aerospace science and technology, even the US space shuttle has to rely on Canada's second-generation robotic arm to complete complex space operations.
In addition, Canada is one of the major producers of minerals, paper and timber. Canada's furniture, cutting-edge medicines, arms and other industries are world-renowned. In contrast, Australia is a country that relies on agricultural and mineral products as its largest source of income. Australia is known as "the country on the back of a sheep", "the country on a minecart". With the exception of extractive-related industries, Australia's manufacturing sector as a whole has not been strong. There was a time when Australia also intended to develop its own automotive manufacturing industry. But Australia is vast and sparsely populated, and it is located on an isolated continent.
This results in a small Australian market, which makes it expensive to manufacture cars locally. Australian cars, which lack cost competitiveness, have been gradually eliminated in competition with cheap foreign car brands, so Australia has never been able to give birth to its own car brands. To this day, Australia is still a major exporter of agricultural and mineral products. On the whole, Canada's economic aggregate, industrial strength and scientific and technological level are significantly higher than those of Australia. As one of the seven major industrial countries in the West, Canada has relatively developed scientific research and military capabilities.
Although Canada's military strength cannot be compared with the United States, China, Russia, Japan, Britain, France, Germany and other countries, Canada's military strength, which has Leopard main battle tanks and F/A18 Hornet fighters, still ranks around 20th in the world. However, Canada is protected by the United States and the entire NATO bloc in terms of defense and security, so there is really no need to maintain a large army. Canada holds the world's second-largest continent but maintains only an active force of more than 60,000 men. The Australian army is about the same size as Canada.
However, Australia is close to East Asia and Southeast Asia. Although Australia and Canada have maintained special relations with the United States and the United Kingdom, the geographical characteristics of being far away from Western countries determine that it is still necessary for Australia to maintain a certain amount of armed forces. Australia's military spending in 2022 was about $32 billion. This ranks 13th in the world. In the same year, Canada's military spending was about $26.7 billion. This is ranked 14th in the world. The comparison of military spending also reflects the difference in military strength between the two countries to a certain extent. In fact, Australia's military may be slightly superior.
In the global firepower rankings, Australia ranks in the top 10 in terms of total air tanker fleet, total number of helicopter carriers, total gas production, number of roads, airports and major ports. Although Australia has just over 60,000 active military personnel, the country has two helicopter carriers and six air tankers. On the whole, Canada is slightly stronger than Australia in many aspects such as national size, economic strength, and scientific and technological level, but the geopolitical environment of being far away from the Eurasian continent and backed by the United States makes it unnecessary for Canada to maintain a large army.
As a result, Canada may be slightly inferior to Australia in terms of military power. In addition to being militarily stronger, Australia is essentially a country that mainly exports agricultural and mineral products. Australia's overall national strength and development level are not as good as Canada's. This difference in strength is an important reason for Australia's exclusion from NATO and the G7. On the other hand, Australia's geopolitical environment is also one of the reasons why it is excluded from NATO and the G7. Although Australia is also known as a Western country, this is actually in terms of human environment and political system.
Australia is geographically far away from Europe and the United States, but closer to Asian countries. Australia is geographically an Asia-Pacific country, but Australians psychologically identify themselves as a Western country. Australia considers itself a white country surrounded by Asian countries in the southern hemisphere. Surrounded by the sea, Australia is not an island nation, but the smallest continent in the world. Australia, which is not an island country, is actually quite similar to an island country in terms of geopolitical environment. Australia, lacking an independent industrial system, is highly dependent on exports.
Once the sea lines of communication with the outside world are cut off, there is a danger of collapse. Australia's unique geopolitical environment makes Australia's defense and foreign policy clearly characterized by fluctuations between continental and island characteristics. Australia's unique geopolitical and cultural environment makes it tend to be psychologically inclined to Europe and the United States, but it is constantly connected with Asia. Australia, which closely follows the United States in terms of foreign and defense and security policy, is highly dependent on the Asian market economically. In fact, Australia can take advantage of its unique geographical environment to become a bridge between Asia-Pacific countries and European and American countries.
But Australia, dominated by the idea of "white supremacy", has always seen the development of Asian countries as a threat: since the gold rush of the 19th century, yellow Asians have always made up a significant proportion of the new immigrants who have flocked to Australia. White people in Australia are beginning to worry that Asian immigrants will one day disgrace their country. In addition to excluding Asians from Australia, it has always been wary of the development of Asian countries. Australia suffers from a paranoia of persecution against Asian powers. Once any Asian country becomes strong, it will inevitably become the target of Australia's guard.
Following Europe and the United States and balancing Asia has become Australia's established national policy, but on the other hand, Australia's economic dependence on Asian countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea is increasing. In the 90s of the 20th century, the then Prime Minister of Australia, Paul Keating, proposed that Australia should be Asianized. At the heart of this man's idea is that the rise of emerging Asian economies such as China has made Asia a place of hope for the world's future. Paul Keating believes that Australia should change its foreign policy of unilateral dependence on the United States, Britain and other countries in the past, and instead strengthen diplomatic relations with emerging countries in Asia.
It was under Paul Keating's leadership that Australia stepped up its cooperation with Asian countries. Today's APEC was first initiated by the Australian Prime Minister during his visit to Seoul (present-day Seoul) in South Korea. The first APEC meeting was held in Canberra, Australia. Today, China is Australia's largest trading partner, and Australia is China's second largest exporter of investment. Australia joined the AFC in 2005. In response, some West Asian countries believe that Australia is crowding out Asia's quota. Australia is said to be preparing to add its own basketball to Asia.
On the surface, exchanges and cooperation between Australia and Asian countries are strengthening, but in fact, Australia still has colored glasses for the development of Asian countries, and it is difficult for Asian countries to truly accept Australia. Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said: "Australia is not our Asian country. Australia is a predominantly European ethnic and cultural country. Because Australians like to be judgmental, they like to point fingers at other countries, they like to point fingers at others." Cultural differences make it difficult for Asian people to accept Australia.
Australia, on the other hand, has long suffered from an inexplicable phobia of Asian powers. Australia has always viewed Asia's emerging powers as its formidable political, economic and military rivals. Australia is faced with a situation in which the inner circle of European and American countries cannot squeeze in, and the circle of Asian countries reluctantly joins, and finally simply declares that it wants to become a Pacific country. In fact, what Australia wants most is to create a North America-South Pacific alliance: the United States, Canada, and New Zealand are all added to form a game.